What is a collage, other than digging into a treasure trove of collected memories—unearthing them, recapturing them, recontextualizing them, and presenting them anew? Fresh. Alive in the present. Marianne Leber lets past perceptions be resurrected in new present moments. Her works are powerful, lush, energetic incarnations of memory.
Rebirth implies death—and some of her images, opulent and full of life, hint precisely at that. In a dark floral collage, flowers in full bloom push forward as if vying for attention—which one is the most lavish? Their time at the peak is brief. They balance on the edge of perfection and decay. The dark, elegant color scheme lends the scene a subtly morbid touch—a modern Memento Mori. No still life with skulls, no moral Vanitas sermon—but an intense awareness of life’s sensuality in the face of transience.
Another collage, in shifting shades of blue and gray, feels even more striking. Hints of empty staircases and doors create a fleeting sense of farewells that are felt but not seen. Hair, labia, wings, a half-hidden ghostly silhouette—all poetically conjure an elegant imagery of disappearance. Each collage reveals a unique sensitivity—sometimes thoughtful, sometimes playful—and all convey a sense of completion.
Leber's life is a rich source of visual material and lived experience. She consistently recontextualizes visual culture. Her work bears witness to a rigorous aesthetic intelligence rooted in a life of contemplation, collection, and re-examination. The pattern—unearthing, capturing, contextualizing, and presenting anew—repeated itself throughout all phases of her journey and led to the refined aesthetic intelligence that shapes her artistic expression today. Interestingly, Leber’s professional career was primarily grounded in the three-dimensional realm. Whether she combined different elements to capture the spirit of the times in window displays and advertising photography or created credible stage sets for film and television, she always took intriguing fragments from one context and reinterpreted them in another.
As a young woman, Marianne was a passionate traveler, and she has remained so—always with openness and curiosity, a keen eye, and a camera ready to capture visual stimuli. Later, she moved to New York's Parsons School of Design to further her education and frequently traveled to Europe’s metropolises, to Asia, and to visit friends in various corners of the world. All the imagery in her collages comes from her own life and the discoveries she made on her colorful, adventurous travels.
The “treasure” she draws from is an archive of a life actively collected through photographs, art books, journals, and experiences—gathered over decades of travel and a multifaceted professional career. As a talented stylist, fearless adventurer, and scenographer, Marianne Leber spent years collecting visual material for her future works.Today, in her seventies, she composes visions of her experiences and memories. Alive, dynamic, and firmly grounded in the present, her collages speak of the fullness, richness, and transience of life as she sees it.